(Not the) Cookery Calendar Challenge: June

I'm (sort of) joining with Penny at The Homemade Heart who invites fellow bloggers to choose one cookery book each month, select and cook two dishes from it and post their thoughts at the beginning of the following month.

Finish Potato Salad

In June I should have been cooking from Sabrina Ghayour's Persiana but, in honour of the EU Referendum (to which I fervently hoped the answer would be 'Remain'!) I decided, over the course of the week leading up to the vote, to prepare and eat one dish (or drink one wine/beer) from each of the 28 nations of the union.

Balbuljata
Maltese Scrambled Eggs

Danish Bubble

I kicked off with Irish soda bread and rounded it off with a Hungarian goulash.  In between we were treated to a cheese pie from Sweden, a Danish bubble and squeak, a fiery pepper sauce from Coatia to go with Bosnian burgers, an almond cake from Spain and a Finish potato salad.

Tarator
Bulgarian Yoghurt & Cucumber Soup

I tried two cold soups, the first a refreshing yoghurt and cucumber one, spiked with garlic, from Bulgaria, and the second a dayglo pink beetroot one from Lithuania.  The recipes ranged in effort required from the lightly pickled Latvian cucumbers to the tricky cheese noodles from Austria.  I included a few indulgences including a Dutch apple tart and some Slovenian apple doughnuts.

Lithuanian Beetroot Soup

There were a few dishes that did not particularly inspire, which may have had more to do with the lack of authentic ingredients or my inexperience in cooking them, but there were many more that I would happily try again.  These included a simple yet tasty mushroom and potato gratin from Estonia, a delicious Greek take on ratatouille, a delightful honey and lemon flavoured haloumi dish from Cyprus and a rich and creamy Portuguese custard tart.

Portuguese Custard Tarts

Dutch Apple Tart

Tackling three or four new recipes a day proved to be more of a challenge than I anticipated but I can honestly say I enjoyed the experience.  It's just a pity that what started out as a celebration of our union ended as homage to its demise.  The Italian prosecco bought to cheer our victory ended up drowning our sorrows.

Halloumi with Honey & Thyme

Persiana has not been forgotten and will be my cookery book for July.

Up the Feeder

A fortnight ago I decided it was about time we discovered more about the in which city we live (ie Bristol).  We moved here over 20 years ago (23 years and 3 months to be precise!) and although we are reasonably familiar with large areas of it, I am sure there are details that have escaped us, and pockets of it that we have never set foot in.

Our first sortie introduced us to the sculptures in and around the centre, which I will leave for another post.

This afternoon we decided to focus on the Feeder Canal, a waterway built between 1804 and 1809, by a workforce of over a thousand English and Irish labourers, to divert water from the tidal river Avon into the Floating Harbour and maintain its level.

No expedition should ever be undertaken on an empty stomach, so our first stop was Hart's Bakery, tucked away in one of the arches beneath Brunel's magnificent station at Temple Meads.  Fortified by mouthwateringly flaky lamb, pea and mint pasties, and two sublime slices of cake (orange and almond polenta and banana and toffee - half each!) washed down with a mug of latte, we boldly set off where we had never been before.

Here are some of the things we saw:

And here are some of the things we learned:

• Bristol was once home to the biggest galvanising works in the world, owned by John Lysaght whose Victorian Gothic fantasy office building still stands on the site.
• Netham Recretation /ground, known locally as The Brillos, got its nickname from 'barilla' a Spanish plant burned to extract sodium carbonate in the old Netham Chemical Works.
• The area between the New Cut and the Feeder Canal, known as The Marsh, was infested by rats, giving employment to local rat catchers.  Albert 'Hopper' Chinnick, the most notorious of them, allegedly bit off their heads as his party trick down the pub.  And for a 'tanner' he's said to have done the same with puppy dogs' tails!
• The rose bushes in Sparke Evans Park produced magnificent flowers on account of the high levels of soot from local industry and railways.

Where will our next excursion take us?

46/365

Alleluia!

A rather unconventional arrangement of marzipan balls on this year's Simnel Cake.  And the reason for this?  Well I took my eye off the marzipan as it browned under the grill.  It was easy enough to scrape the offending burnt bit off but it left an unattractive rough surface.  So I rearranged 'the apostles' in the the centre.  I think it makes them look more friendly!

Christmas Eve/Day - A Review

Love Actually DVD

New pyjamas

Midnight Mass

Christmas stockings laid out (and filled!)

Refreshments for Santa & Rudolph

Lie in (the joys of teenage children!)

Bucks Fizz and Nigella's Christmas Morning Muffins

Emptying stockings

Unwrapping presents

Walk around the harbourside in the sunshine

Smoked salmon on Mark's ciabatta while dinner cooks

Phonecall to sister in Edinburgh

Prawn toast and Vietnamese spring rolls

Crispy duck wrapped in pancakes with plum sauce

Sticky belly pork with egg fried rice

No room for pudding

Dr Who Christmas special

A glass of Baileys Irish Cream

Bed

Merry Christmas!

On the Twenty Fifth Day of December

One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas Day.

Don't clean it up too quickly.

Andy Rooney (American radio and television writer)

 As if ...

C* Begins Here

Every year I intend to bake our Christmas cake in the October half term holiday - and every year I end up leaving it until the week before the big day (which doesn't allow nearly enough time for 'irrigation'!).

So today marks a remarkable achievement in our household.

I usually follow my trusty Good Housekeeping recipe for a traditional cake (not the 'economical' one - what a ridiculous proposition!) but this year I've opted for Nigel's version from his first volume of The Kitchen Diaries. And, rather than go straight out and buy all the ingredients without any reference to my larder, this year I rummaged around the back of my shelves and unearthed quite a few lurkers.  I also managed to buy quite a few items with Bristol pounds.

I leave you, not with a image of the finished cake (which is still in the oven!) but of my favourite step in the process, the chopping and mixing of the dried fruit, which always puts me in mind of strings of lights in the hallway, baubles on the tree ...  Enough!

Half Term Projects

I found that drawing up a list helped me to make the best use of my summer holidays, so I have decided to repeat the experiment for the October half term holiday.

So here it is:

1. Turn 1.5 kg of green tomatoes into chutney
2. Discover more traders who accept Bristol pounds
3. Release a few more books
4. Tidy the back bedroom
5. Bake our Christmas cake
6. Read Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
7. Bake this loaf of bread
8. Visit Cheltenham for the day
9. Finish knitting bunting for my elder daughter
10. Make our Christmas pudding
11. Catch up with a few old friends

I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Summer Holiday To Do List - A Review

Well, I managed to strike off 11 of the 25 things I wanted to do in the school holidays, which doesn't worry me in the least as I did lots of other things instead.

I didn't eat a bacon butty at Brunel's Buttery but I did tuck in to a full English at the Lockside to compensate for the lack of a hot air balloon ascent at dawn.

I didn't have a drink at The Grain Barge but I did have a few at No 1 Harbourside, one of George Ferguson's other ventures.

I didn't visit the Holborne Museum but I was delighted by Richard Race's Automata exhibition at the Victoria Art Gallery on my first ever visit.

I didn't make it to London to view Grayson Perry's tapestries but I did take in the Alex Katz exhibition at Tate St Ives.

I didn't walk the Bristol to Bath cycle path but I did embark on the NHS Couch to 5k programme (temporarily suspended due to dodgy knee!)

I didn't visit Tyntesfield but I did spend a day working in the walled garden at Barley Wood.

I didn't bake any scones but I ate a few (with strawberry jam and clotted cream) in St Ives.

I didn't manage to fill my South West Reading Passport but I did make a start with one book each from North America (The Power & the Glory by Graham Greene) and Asia (Silk by Alessandro Barrico).

I didn't bake a pizza but I did bake a deliciously moist Almond and Orange cake for the last WI meeting.

I didn't paint my toenails but I paddled in the sea. 

I didn't have a barbecue but I did eat an excellent burger at Blas Burger Works in St Ives. 

I didn't make any homemade lemonade but I did drink Pimms (and eat cucumber sandwiches) while cheering Andy Murray on to his Olympic Gold.

I didn't start another sourdough mixture but I did share one of Mark's loaves with a friend I hadn't seen for a long time, who took the rest of it home to her partner in Wales.

I didn't catch a live performance at the Colston Hall but I did spend a very pleasant afternoon drinking beer, eating paella and listening to flamenco, blue grass and klezmer at the El Rincon  Fiesta at Greville Smythe Park Bowling Green.

I've had a good break and am as ready as I can be for the year ahead.

Bristol Harbour Festival: Pictures not Words

 

  

My Top Ten Cookery Books

Today I bought a new cookery book.  Heaven knows I don't need one but that's never stopped me before and it didn't this time when our Book People rep came calling with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's latest offering.  Besides, it provided me with the perfect opportunity to publish a post I've been mulling over for some time now.

So here it is, my definitive(?) Top Ten Cookery Books

1. Good Housekeeping -  This was one of the first cookery books I bought and its the one I turn to most often to find out how long to roast a joint, the ratio of flour to butter to milk in a white sauce or the correct way to sterilise jam jars.  It cost me 50p in an introductory offer to a book club in my final year at university and has been with me ever since.  It has lost both back and front covers and its pages are scuffed and stained, but I wouldn't trade it in for any other book.
2. Real Food (Nigel Slater) - It's not just the recipes but Nigel Slater's attitude to food that appeals to me.  This is solid everyday cookery, the sort of food you would be happy to eat time and time again.  And we do!
3. How to Eat (Nigella Lawson) - Nigella Lawson is another of my food heroes.  This is a chunky book and it took me a while to justify the expense.  But it's one I've never regretted.  It's the kind of cookery book I can sit and read just for the pleasure of the prose.  And as I read it I can hear her voice in my head.  Gosh, I must have been watching too much TV!
4. The New Covent Garden soup Company's Book of Soups - We Scots are brought up on soup.  It practically runs in our veins.  I love it.  It's warm and nourishing and easy to prepare and is the perfect way to use up odd bits and pieces lying around the kitchen.  But sometimes it's good to start from scratch and boil up something special and this book has plenty to chose from.
5. The Good Cook (Simon Hopkinson) - I've come late to Simon Hopkinson, through his recent TV series.  He came across as a gentle man and his recipes are a reflection of his manner.
6. Indian Cookery (Savitra Chowdhary) - I inherited this book from my mother, although I have a feeling that it was my Dad who made more use of it.  I don't use many of its recipes but it's where I turn for a basic dhal and gajar halwa, my all time favourite Indian sweetmeat.
7. Mediterranean Cookery (Claudia Roden) - I love the aromatic flavours of Middle Eastern food and Claudia Roden's book is a veritable feast for the senses.
8. Delia Smith's Christmas (Delia Smith) - No list would be complete without a Delia Smith and this is my favourite.  In  years when I've opted for a traditional turkey dinner I've followed her countdown to Christmas dinner almost to the second.  And it's her mincemeat recipe every time!
9. How to be a Domestic Goddess (Nigella Lawson)  Nigella's second appearance but as this is the book I turn to first when I get the urge to bake she deserves it.
10. The Book of Children's Party Cakes (Ann Nicol) - From when they were old enough my daughters have been presented with this book a couple of weeks before their birthdays and asked to choose their cake.  Even the most complicated cakes are simple when you follow the instructions step by step.

So this is my list.  What about you?  Would any of these books feature on yours?  Have you any personal favourites to recommend?

Alleluia!

Simnel Cake, a rich fruit cake baked with a layer of marzipan at its centre, was traditionally associated with Mothering Sunday, the day on which young girls in service were allowed the day off to visit their mothers.

It is now more commonly eaten at Easter, when the usual decoration consists of eleven small balls of marzipan (representing the disciples, minus Judas) arranged in a circle with a larger ball, representing Jesus, at its centre.

I have once again turned to Delia Smith's recipe.  The layer of marzipan is replaced with nuggets of the paste which lend a gooey richness to the cake.  The balls are ditched in favour of a lattice brushed with egg yolk and toasted under the grill.  The edible gold glitter is my own invention.  And although I managed not to set the smoke alarm off while toasting the almonds yesterday I wasn't so lucky while burnishing the marzipan this morning!

Happy Easter!

Let the Chocolate Fest Begin!

So glad that my daughters (20 and 'almost' 18) are still not too old to appreciate chocolate crispy nests.

I use Nigel Slater's recipe but substitute rice crispies for cornflakes and milk chocolate for posh dark stuff.

Day 21 - Delicious

It's 10 days since Hermann came to live with us.  This afternoon I divided the bubbling batter into four portions.  Two to pass on to friends, one to keep and one to transformed into a Friendship Cake.  Aside from the flour, sugar, oil etc the recipe is fairly flexible.  I added cubed apples, broken walnuts and dried cranberries.  It went down well with the ladies who knit & natter this afternoon.

PS Just noticed that this is my 250th post.  If I'd realised earlier I would have added a few candles!

Love is ... a heart shaped cake!

This the cake my elder daughter baked me for Mothering Sunday last year.

It tasted every bit as good as it looked!

Sweet Sixteen

My younger daughter celebrated her sixteenth birthday today. Well sort of. With seven GCSEs this week the celebrations were restricted to cards, presents and her choice of today's menu - pancakes, bacon and maple syrup for breakfast and Chinese crispy duck for lunch. Oh, and a chocolate birthday cake!

49 before 50

This summer I'll be 50. Although I don't feel it, and hope I don't look it, I shall nonetheless reach my half century later this year. So, in anticpation of this momentous day, I have devised a list of 49 things I would like to do before I'm 50. Phew, I'm going to be busy!

1. Catch the ferry to Bees Tea Gardens
2. Bake a brioche
3. Watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy in one day
4. Knit myself a scarf
5. Teach my daughters how to knit
6. Make a Cornish pasty
7. Walk to Bath along the cycle path
8. Make my will
9. Make a year's supply of marmalade
10. Sort through my photographs
11. Have our Amsterdam poster framed
12. Grow half a dozen vegetables in our back garden
13. Paint the front door
14. Make a birthday card from recycled materials
15. Work my way through my piano book
16. Make tablet
17. Watch a Bollywood movie with my daughters
18. Make a note of all my friends' birthdays
19. Read a French novel
20. Buy an address book and make a note of all my friends' addresses
21. Reduce my BMI to 20
22. Write to all the people who sent us Christmas cards
23. Reduce our landfill waste to 100g or less per week
24. Write one letter a month for Amnesty
25. Read at least one book a month
26. See at least one film a month
27. Phone my sister once a week
28. Clear out my wardrobe
29. Book tickets for Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory
30. Make Pashka at Easter
31. Give up something for Lent
32. Take up something for Lent
33. Bake Hot Cross Buns on Good Friday
34. Remember to use the shrink wrap egg decorations at Easter
35. Follow the longest trail in Leigh Woods
36. Take a picnic (and some friends) to Brandon Hill
37. Visit the Georgian House
38. Make butter
39. Learn to crochet
40. Make my daughers something for their birthdays
41. Cook a special Valentine's dinner
42. Preserve lemons
43. Have the piano tuned
44. Devise a 4 week menu
45. Attend evensong at the Cathedral
46. Arrange our classical CD collection
47. Book tickets for the BBC Proms
48. Grow giant sunflowers in our front garden
49. Organise a 50th birthday celebration

To record my progress I have started a new blog called (wait for it!) 49before50 which also give me the opportunity to try out blogging on Wordpress.

Jam & Jerusalem

Well here's something I never thought I'd write. I have joined the Women's Institute. Seriously!

A couple of weeks ago, at the Best of Bedminster Show on North Street Green, my attention was drawn to the WI stall, not by the cakes, but by the relative youth of the stall holders and the retro leaflets on the table. I signed up to receive further details and a few weeks later I was invited to attend the inaugural meeting of the Malago Institute, which is where I was earlier this evening.

There were a good number of women present, most of them in their thirties. I went with a friend and her daughter and recognised a handful of others. The meeting was very informal: an icebreaker game, a short introduction, a chance for suggestions for future meetings and the opportunity to sign up - which I did. It seems to me to be a great way to get to know other local women, have fun and make a difference to our neighbourhood - and, of course, eat cake!

It wasn't long after we moved to Bristol that I had our first daughter. The National Childbirth Trust, with its local coffee mornings and amazing secondhand clothes sales, saved me from going stir crazy, and some of the mums I met at that time are still good friends. But life's moved on and so have I, and it's time to look for new friends and new challenges, and I think the WI might be the answer.

Anyway the next meeting is at 8 pm on Wednesday 10 December at Ebeneezer Church on British Road and will have a Christmas theme.

Oh and I voted that we sing Jerusalem at our meetings!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my 49th birthday. It's been a funny old day. I had to be up early to make a special packed lunch for my younger daughter who was setting off on a week's school trip to Wales. While I was cutting the sandwiches an old friend rang and sang Happy Birthday to me over the phone. My younger daughter gave me a retro card which reads 'Oh My God! My Mother Was Right About Everything!' which I shall add to the collection on my kitchen cupboard. She also gave me two bars of Toblerone with a promise of something else to follow when she returns (and, presumably, has saved up enough money!). I found a pile of cards waiting for me when I got to work but didn't take in any cakes/biscuits as I had to leave early to take my daughter to catch her coach and then on to a (boring) course in the afternoon. Fortunately it ended an hour earlier than scheduled and, thanks to a lift from a friend, I was home in good time. My elder daughter had spent all day making me a fabulous cake (an Autumnal Birthday Cake from Magnolia via Nigella Lawson) and a classy homemade card. She gave me a CD of the music from Once, one of my favourite films this year. Our French exchange family phoned from Bordeaux and my sister phoned from Edinburgh. Alan came home and poured me a glass of white wine and has just called me through for dinner. Not a bad day after all.

PS There would be photos of all of the above but our camera's broken and the girls' one is in Wales. However, Alan is going to buy me one for my birthday. He just hasn't decided which one yet.